A mechanical duck that 'digested' grain fooled audiences for over a century.

1739 · 1844 · apart: 105 years

Magician Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin exposed it in 1844: the grain collected in one compartment, and pre-made 'droppings' waited in another.

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The event

• Vaucanson's Digesting Duck1739 · Paris. Jacques de Vaucanson showed off a gilded duck that quacked, pecked at grain and soon produced droppings. Parisians believed it had an artificial digestive system; in fact the droppings were preloaded in a hidden compartment.

18th century · 19th century

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